Teacher's use of inquiry based instruction in teaching science in early childhood education in Meru south district, Tharaka Nithi county, Kenya

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Abstract

Science skills are basic requirements that enable all members of society to productively
engage in everyday technological advancements. Despite this importance, learners
continue to perform poorly in science examinations worldwide. The impetus to conduct
this study stems from the fact that science education in early childhood is of great
importance to many aspects of a child's development as it can bridge the gap in education
achievement in science performance at higher levels of learning. The purpose of this study
therefore is to investigate early childhood teachers' use of inquiry based instructional
approaches in science activities. The main objectives of this study are to: (i) determine
early childhood teachers' awareness and understanding of inquiry instruction in science
activities, (ii) find out the extent to which constructivist teaching using inquiry was
utilized in early childhood science lessons, (iii) determine factors that hinder or promote
early childhood teachers' use of inquiry based instructional approaches in early childhood
science teaching in Meru South District. This study is based on constructivism theory.
This study will be limited in scope to a study of early childhood teachers in public schools
in Meru South District and will adopt an in-depth descriptive research design. The target
population for this study will be 270 teachers. The study will purposively select 18
teachers for the study. The instruments for data collection will be phenomenological
• interview and science lesson observation schedules. Interview questions will be pretested
on 2 teachers from Maara district and 2 teachers from Tharaka south district. Credibility of
the study instruments will be established through member check, prolonged engagement,
persistent observation, peer debriefmg, triangulation, multiple data sources and by
comparing pretest results from the pilot study in two districts. The reliability of the study
instruments will be ensured by keeping accurate descriptions and interpretations of
respondent experiences and corroboration of the data by participants at all stages of the
research process. Results from the pilot study that will be done in two neighbouring
districts on different occasions will be analyzed to check instruments reliability. Based on
the pilot study, the Interview questions will be refmed before the actual data collection.
This study will adopt Dolbeare and Schuman (Schuman, 1982) model of in-depth,
phenomenological interviewing of participants for 30 minutes. The researcher will
randomly select and observe 3 separate science lessons taught by each teacher in the study
sample. Descriptive statistics including frequency counts and percentages will be used to
analyze quantitative data while data elicited by interview questions will be analyzed
qualitatively by arranging the responses thematically after which the main themes in the
responses will be identified and used to determine their adequacy, usefulness and
consistency. The results of the study will be discussed in relation to the themes that will
emerge. This research will have implications for teachers, teacher educators, curriculum
developers, and educational researchers. It is hoped that the fmdings of this study may
improve the delivery of science lessons in early childhood learning environment.